THE BILL KEITH REPORT AND NEWS COMMENTARY March 1, 2014

Cabbages and Kings

Workers at a Mississippi funeral home say they found a man alive and kicking when they opened a body bag. The county coroner had pronounced the 78-year-old man dead when he could find no pulse, the AP reports.

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     Air Force One, the personal airplane of the President of the United States, now costs the taxpayers $228,288 per hour of flying time.

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A 3-year-old girl called 911 and saved her dad’s life. He had taught her how to call 911 just months earlier.Shawn Powers was home alone with his two young daughters, trying to cut down a tree in his backyard when he accidentally sliced his right wrist with a machete.

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     Did you know? The National Rifle Association was started by religious leaders to protect blacks from the Ku Klux Klan? 

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     Exercising the Second Amendment, a Minnesota car dealership is giving a free shotgun with each truck purchase.

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     Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will star in a new reality TV program entitled “Amazing America With Sarah Palin.” It is scheduled to premiere on April 3 on the Sportsman Channel, Politico reports.

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     New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio was caught speeding and running a stop sign only a short time after he made a traffic safety announcement! 

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     An Iowa man has lost his job and unemployment benefits for using a forklift to get a candy bar from a malfunctioning vending machine, state records say.

It’s Your Money

Have you ever wondered how much money the federal government sends to the wrong recipients? It’s over $100 billion a year, according to the Office of Budget and Management.

     Some $60 billion is lost in Medicare fraud, another $6 billion in food stamp fraud.

     Comment: It is apparent that there is little to no oversight on how elected officials in Washington spend the taxpayers’ money. Since it is not their money — they actually don’t have a dime other than what taxpayers send them — they are very cavalier in spending it. If it was their money, I’m sure they would be more careful.

Walt Disney World Drops Boy Scouts
     Walt Disney World has decided to drop a Florida Boy Scouts council as a recognized charity for its employees, according to a Scouting memo posted on a gay-friendly website, the Washington Times reports.

     The policy change came about after the scouting organization announced it would not accept homosexual men as scout masters. 

     “The corporate giant — whose Orlando park is a major destination for “Gay Day” events in early June — will also no longer offer the council or its units grant funding, apparently a signal that the BSA decision, by keeping the adult ban, did not go far enough,” the Times says.

     A BSA spokesman confirmed the action  on Thursday.

     Comment: Hence, Walt Disney World joins a host of other major companies persecuting the scouts because of the no-homosexual-scoutmaster decision. The scouting organization has files on hundreds of former homosexual scoutmasters who sexually abused young scouts.

     I wonder why that doesn’t matter to these major companies like Walt Disney World?

“Son of God” Drama Debuts in Cities Across America

     The Biblical Drama Son of God opened in theaters on Friday as industry estimates for the opening weekend have risen to a whopping $22.5 million.

“Produced by husband and wife team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, Son of God is the story of Jesus of Nazareth from birth to crucifixion to resurrection and includes footage from the wildly popular 2013 Emmy-nominated TV series The Bible, also a Burnett-Downey production,” Breitbart reports.

Religious leaders across America rented screens to premier the film on Thursday, including mega-church Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in California, who is encouraging pastors to use the film as a launching pad to form groups and hold discussions and “reach more people for Jesus,” according to Breitbart.

Reverend Warren said he has created a six-week series using scenes from Son of God, centered on themes such as baptism, temptation and suffering, to be presented to the people in his church, Breitbart says.

Something to Think About

     Isn’t it interesting that we always hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money? How come we never hear about welfare running out of money? Remember that the first group worked for their money; the second group didn’t.

     There’s something else that really amazes me — we hear about all the money we are borrowing to keep the government afloat, yet we give away mega-billions to countries all over the world that don’t even like us.

     Think about it.

Pastors Call for Impeachment of Eric Holder

     A coalition of black pastors have announced a campaign to gather one million signatures on a petition calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder for trying “to coerce states to fall in line with the same-sex marriage agenda,” CNS news reports.

     The pastors believe that Holder has violated his oath of office by refusing to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress several years ago. 

     “President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have turned their backs on the values the American people hold dear, values particularly cherished in the black community: values like marriage, which should be strengthened and promoted, rather than weakened and undermined,” says a statement by the Coalition of African American Pastors that has been posted online with their impeachment petition.

     “Our nation calls for the building up of a healthier marriage culture; instead, our elected leaders are bent on destroying marriage, remaking it as a genderless institution and reorienting it to be all about the desires of adults rather than the needs of children,” says the coalition.

     “In pursuing this intention, the president and his administration are trampling the rule of law. Attorney General Holder in particular has used the influence of his office and role as the chief law enforcement figure in our nation to try to coerce states to fall in line with the same-sex ‘marriage’ agenda,” says the coalition. 

     They point out that the voters in 36 states have voted to defend marriage as the union of one man and one woman but Holder is attempting single-handedly to throw those votes away.

     “For abandoning the oath he swore in taking office and his duty to defend the common good, Attorney General Holder should be impeached by Congress,” says the coalition. “CAAP is calling on all men and women of good will to sign the following petition urging Congress to take action against the Attorney General’s lawlessness today!”

     According to CNs, the Reverend Bill Owens, founder and president of CAAP, said that political leaders in Washington — neither democrats nor republicans –have not held Holder accountable.

Commentary: Pentagon to Downsize Military to Pre-World War II Numbers

     The Pentagon announced this week that there will be a significant reduction in appropriations for the military. Plans call for nearly a $500 billion in cuts. The army would be reduced to 380,000 troops and the marines to 150,000. The navy would be allowed to keep only three carriers on duty. They now have 10.

     These cuts would take the U.S. military back to pre-World War II strength.

     “We are repositioning to focus on the strategic challenges and opportunities that will define our future new technologies, new centers of power, and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable, and in some instances more threatening to the United States,” Secretary of Defense Chuck Hegel said in a Pentagon press conference earlier this week.

     It appears to me that the inmates have taken over the asylum. Secretary Hegel’s reasoning is convoluted. He says the world is “more volatile” and in some instances “more threatening” to the United States. If his assessment is correct, that would indicate we should increase our military power. Yet he is going to emasculate the military and cut our armies and navies back to pre-World War II numbers. That was the size of the military when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

     Does the Pentagon and the Obama administration know that China has a military with 2.3 million troops and Russia 1.2 million?

     It is also quite egregious that the cuts call for limiting military pay raises, higher fees for our soldiers’ healthcare benefits and less generous housing allowances.

     It amazes me that the President and the Congress would even think about cutting back our military. When they declare war, the President and Congress don’t go to the battlefield to bleed and die, they send our soldiers.

     Why not cut welfare and food stamps for illegal aliens in this land? There are from 12- to 20-million illegals here. The American Immigration Council says that 47 percent of all the illegals are on welfare and 37 percent receive food stamps.

     Mexico should be responsible for welfare payments and food stamps for their people, not the American taxpayers who are spending so much money on these programs that we now must cut back our military.

Posted by Bill Keith at 8:28 PM No comments: 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

    Note to Reader: My commentary entitled Catholics, Homosexuals and the News Media appears at the end of this Report.

Cabbages and Kings

     Officials are searching for a monkey believed to be breaking into cars in a Tampa Bay, Florida, neighborhood.

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A 10-year-old Parker, Colorado, girl was driving her parents car but happened to make a wrong turn. She crashed the car into the Department of Motor Vehicles office. She told police, “The car just went.” There were 10 people in the office at the time. No one was injured.

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     Mitt Romney leads the Republican field among New Hampshire primary voters for 2016. Interesting.

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     In January of this year there were 4,406 U.S. record cold temperatures and 1,073 snowfall records. Comment: It must be due to global warming.

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     Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards says women really “need” to get an abortion for Valentine’s Day. Comment: This is evidence of how depraved our culture has become.

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     The gambling industry around the world is growing every day, but the biggest market is the United States, where gamblers lost a staggering $119 billion in 2013.

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     Book thieves stole 70,144 books from the Brooklyn Public Library in 2013.

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     Although the Obama administration and many voices in the Congress repeatedly call for a national plan for equal pay for equal work — aimed primarily at helping women receive fair wages — reports show that the White House still pays women less than men for the same jobs.

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     “All vets are mentally ill in some way and government should prevent them from owning firearms.” ~~ Sen. Diane Feinstein, California. 

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Prison Life Today: Food Stamps, Free Meals, Cable TV

Prison life just isn’t what it used to be. Now prisoners are receiving millions in food stamps, free meals, cable TV, unemployment benefits — and, of all things, prescription drugs.

     According to the Washington Times, it’s a good time to be in prison where inmates are mistakenly receiving tens of millions of dollars in benefits at taxpayer expense.

     “The latest folly comes compliments of Medicare, which gave such poor oversight to its prescription coverage that it allowed $11.7 million in drug benefits to go to inmates from 2006 to 2010, according a report … by the Health and Human Services inspector general,” The Times reported.

     Interestingly, taxpayers already foot the bill for all medical needs of prisoners.

     A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services blamed their own officials for the poor management of tax payers’ money.

    Commentary: For going on three years The Report has pointed out how cavalier government officials are with We the People’s tax money. I reported that there was $50 billion in Medicare fraud and $6 billion in Food Stamp fraud. As mentioned before, these officials are using our money and have no incentive to watch out for that money. And, all this money going to men/women in prison reveals the total lack of accountability in the bureaucracy. It also raises the question: Are federal bureaucrats capable of running the nationalized healthcare program which involves one-sixth of the American economy?

Immigration Enforcement and the Law

The president of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement union blasted the White House for refusing to enforce congressionally-enacted laws regarding illegal immigrants in this land.

     Chris Crane told National Review that ICE officers are prohibited from enforcing immigration violations and document fraud and from cracking down on illegal employment.

     He said that the border patrol agents are prohibited from enforcing laws that protect the American citizens and every day are forced to release violent offenders back into the streets.

ICE officers do not have the connections, funds or votes that powerful special interests and billionaire CEOs can deliver,” Crane said.  ”We are just 5,000 law officers responsible for enforcing immigration law for tens of millions of visa holders and illegal immigrants in all 50 states and two territories — it is a losing battle that puts American safety at risk.

     “But we hope to have justice and a concern for public safety on our side… in our uphill fight to ensure the constitutional rule of law in America.”

China, the Pentagon and the Balance of Power

A U. S. Pentagon official recently warned Congress that Chinese military advances are a growing concern and China will overtake the U.S. in military power in as few as five years.

     Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense, said the Chinese have tested new ultra-high speed strike planes that fly at the speed of Mach 10 or 7,680 miles an hour. He warned that such planes would be difficult for America’s missile defense to stop. 

     “The high speed of these systems makes it much more difficult for air defenses to engage,” he said.

     Comment: We the American people are slow to catch on the world realities around us. Our major companies — Walmart, K-Mart, Target, Sears and just about every other retail outlet — have been the ones responsible for China being awash in trillions of dollars in cash that funds their military expansion. But don’t be too quick to blame these big retail outlets. The American people have an obsession with products that cost less and will continue to purchase them even though they are made in China.

     However, Congress, as ineffective as they are, should come up with a trade plan that would require the Chinese to purchase as many goods from us as we purchase from them.

 Remembering Judge Robert Bork

     Judge Robert Bork was one of the great jurists in American history. He was a legal scholar, law professor at Yale and a judge with the U. S. Court of Appeals for Washington, DC.

     But many of us remember him as the victim of a smear campaign when in 1987 President Ronald Reagan nominated him for the U.S. Supreme Court.

     Doug Giles, writing for Clash Daily, is correct when he says the accusations against Bork — primarily that he was a racist — had no merit. “The Democrat’s real problem with Bork, just as with (Justices) Scalia and Thomas, was that he could not find a right to kill one’s child in the constitution,” Giles said. “Unable to refute his legal opinions, his opponents resorted to character assassination. With the aid of the media and the arbiters of culture in Hollywood, the Democrats succeeded in derailing Bork’s nomination.”

     In 1996, Bork wrote Slouching Toward Gomorrah, a critical expose of the culture war we are facing here in America. “He pointed to the acceptance of baby sacrifice as a sure sign that our culture was in decline and headed toward divine judgment,” Giles said. “His prophetic warning was ignored by Americans. In his book Bork advanced the hypothesis that most Americans were blissfully ignorant of the path that the culture was on. He believed that our comfortable abundance was shielding us from the truth and thus he characterized us as ‘slouching.’”

     Giles points out that Bork’s implication was that most of the American people are unaware of where this culture shift is taking us and if they did understand they would reverse the course. 

     According to Giles, the homosexual rights movement has little to do with rights. “Their ultimate goal is to stigmatize Christians as bigots and to de-legitimize their (Christians) role in society.” 

Catholics, Homosexuals and the News Media –A Commentary

     Let me say that I am not a Catholic, have never been a Catholic and will never be a Catholic. But in good conscience, I must come to the defense of the Catholic Church. 

     And the subject is homosexual priests molesting boys in the church. 

     Be it known now and forevermore, that is not a Catholic Church problem it is a homosexual problem! 

     But no one has the courage to admit it for to blame homosexuals for anything is not politically correct. Let me say it again — priests molesting boys is a homosexual problem. The homosexuals create the problem and Catholics have to deal with it.

     It is obvious that perhaps hundreds of priests, with homosexual dispositions, gravitated toward the priesthood for they knew there would be young boys in their charge in the church.

     Have you ever heard this before? No, of course not. The leftist news media has always claimed the molestation was a church problem. Now admittedly, the church was slow at times in dealing with the problem. But so have Protestant groups where there has been molestation. Schools have tried to protect homosexual teachers. Doctors have been known to molest patients. And on and on.

     Former Pope Benedict apologized for the “unspeakable crimes” of sexual abuse. Cardinals and others have done the same.

     But why does the media continue to hammer the Catholic Church over this issue? The answer is simple. The mainstream media — ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Times, Boston Globe and Washington Post –project a strong pro-homosexual bias that is evident in their reporting. Therefore, when the Catholic — or Protestant — Church teaches that the Bible speaks of homosexual activity as a sin, they come under attack. But these same church groups also teach that any sexual activity outside of marriage among heterosexuals is a sin in the sight of God.

     Then there are other reasons the news media hate the Catholic Church. The Catholics have been at the forefront of trying to save the lives of the helpless and defenseless unborn. For that, they should be commended and not chastised. The Catholics are well aware of the tragedy of the 55 million little babies who have been killed in their mothers’ wombs since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

     Homosexuals enter the priesthood for its wide, free, constant access to young boys just as homosexuals become Boy Scout leaders for the access to young boys. Whatever Catholic convictions these priests or scout leaders hold are secondary to their homosexuality.

     Really, how could someone logically believe that the actions of a male, who happens to be a priest, sexually abusing another male, who happens to be an altar boy, could have any foundation in Catholicism?

     Concerning the Boy Scouts, the Scouts headquarters have hundreds of files on former scout masters who sexually abused young scouts. There was one case in a Houston, Texas, suburb where a scout leader molested some 39 boys over a period of time.

     Yet, when the Boy Scouts of America refuse to allow homosexual scout leaders, this same leftist/progressive news media brand the scouts as bigots and don’t even mention homosexuals.

     For this reason, many large companies no longer contribute to scouting. Some of them include the Levi Strauss Company, Verizon, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Valero, General Mills, Merck, Caterpillar, Lockeed Martin, UPS, United way and many others.

     It’s amazing how many people in this land have been brainwashed to believe that abortion, homosexuality, and homosexual marriage are just fine. But the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America are wrong.

     Something to think about.

THE BILL KEITH REPORT AND NEWS COMMENTARY March 1, 2014